Human Resource for Health (HRH) Program

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USAID envisions a program that supports countries to build strong health systems and economies in order to achieve their priority health goals by addressing their health workforce needs. A very broad definition of “health workforce” will be applied, including anyone whose functioning is needed to run and support the health system. It moves beyond traditional cadres of health care workers, such as doctors, nurses, pharmacists, midwives and community health workers (CHWs), to include new clinical cadres, non-clinical cadres such as medical shop keepers and traditional healers, health managers, the supply chain workforce, the social welfare workforce, and others throughout the public and private sectors. The program will engage on the global level to advance technical and policy dialogue on HRH and support implementation of a globally defined strategy through tailored country-level technical assistance that meets context-specific priorities for local human resource and health systems. In doing so, it will address HRH issues across all levels of the health system while also aligning with the health workforce needs for family planning (FP), reproductive health (RH), Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), maternal and child health (MCH) and other health areas in priority countries. It will address overarching issues of leadership, governance and financing that impact country level planning, recruitment, development, deployment and support of the health workforce. The focus on building capacity and country ownership for the health workforce will contribute to the sustainability of investment and make a lasting contribution to achieving health goals. To further address sustainability, it will contribute significantly to supporting efforts to enhance the accountability for HRH both locally and globally. In five years, this effort will demonstrate measurable progress toward health workforce goals and its impact in supporting achievement of health priorities in the post-2015 agenda. To support countries in developing the sufficient, fit-for-purpose and fit-to-practice health workforce needed to end preventable child and maternal deaths by 2035, increase access to modern contraceptive methods, and achieve and maintain an AIDS-free generation, the project will have as its goal to improve the accessibility, availability, acceptability and quality of the health workforce needed to achieve improved health outcomes and advance universal health coverage. It will move beyond simply increasing the number of workers, to address issues of distribution, skill mix, competencies, key workforce characteristics, leadership and governance and the sustainable systems needed to support the health workforce.

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